Opening
Visibility can be strangely lonely. You may share your work widely while still wondering whether anyone really knows the person behind it. Community begins when people are invited to tell the fuller story and are given a reliable place to return to.
The idea
Trish Tonaj is an author, artist, emcee, and the founder of Share Your Stories. Her community began after an executive education course at Harvard Law School, where participants shared the stories of how they arrived in the room and the people who helped them along the way.
Trish recognised mentorship as a powerful form of connection. She began with a guest blog, then created a platform that now carries stories across five continents. The model is simple but not casual. People are featured, welcomed into a wider network, and invited to return for regular gatherings.
Trish’s quarterly events are intentionally facilitated. Participants move into smaller conversations, hear from someone in the community, and make time for relationships that might otherwise remain potential. Consistency is a form of generosity because it reduces the effort required to reconnect. Trish also holds a strengths-based view of visibility.
Her phrase is:
“We want people to be seen, heard, found, and hired.”
Being seen is not vanity. It can be the beginning of being understood, supported, and connected to useful opportunities.
Her marketing grant and mentorship initiatives extend that principle by giving people practical support rather than asking them to build visibility alone. Share Your Stories demonstrates that global community is not created by scale alone. It grows through repeated invitations, clear structures, and the willingness to celebrate what people can contribute.
The people in the network are not an audience. They are participants in a shared story.
What I took from it
I first experienced Trish’s community as someone being invited to share my own story. That mattered because I had moved from the UK to Canada and was still finding language for the work I was building.
I have also raised children away from extended family, so I understand the difference between having contacts and having people who will show up. Trish creates that showing up through rhythm, generosity, and care.
Three things to try this week
- Tell one person in your network what you appreciate about the work they are building. Be specific and do not attach a request.
- Set a recurring monthly or quarterly conversation with a small group. Choose a simple question and let everyone contribute.
- Make one useful introduction between two people whose interests genuinely meet. Explain the connection and then let them choose what happens next.
Listen and go deeper
Listen to the episode on Buzzsprout and explore the guest’s work at Trish Tonaj.
Close
Community grows when people are repeatedly seen as more than their professional label. Our research explores how recognition and reciprocity activate Social Capital into Social Wealth. Explore it, then ask whose story you could help make more visible. Explore the research, then ask yourself what you will practise next.